The embodiments herein relate generally to design of watercraft and related vessels.
Prior to embodiments of the disclosed invention, flat bottomed boats that ran in very shallow displayed negative characteristics like poor handling, slow acceleration along with poor handling in rough water. Prior art solutions to this problem involve a completely flat bottom with a tunnel or a slight deadrise with a tunnel. However, these devices can only feed a limited amount water resulting in very gradual acceleration. Others can feed water but do so at the expense of increased drag through a condition known as “tunnel suck”. This is caused by increased turbulent flow of water in the tunnel along with greater surface area increasing drag. Embodiments of the disclosed invention solve these problems.
In particular, this could be valuable to flats fishermen who want to run their boats very shallow in the fishing grounds but want to get to those fishing grounds as fast and efficiently as possible. In the case of tournament fishermen and guides their livelihood depends on the ability to be the first to start fishing without sacrificing speed and handling.